Piles of waste are being dumped almost every hour in a Teesside town, new figures have revealed.

A staggering 18 cases of fly-tipping are recorded on average in Middlesbrough every day.

Now calls are being made to tackle the issue which is being labelled a “scourge” which is hated by residents who have to live with the effects of waste dumped in their streets.

Cllr Joan McTigue, who faced 296 separate instances of flytipping reported in her Longlands and Beechwood ward in a single year, said the problem needed to be dealt with by preventative measures rather to reacting after waste was dumped.

The independent councillor said responding to each individual report is hugely inefficient.

But she says Middlesbrough Council has ignored her calls for preventative measures such as placing CCTV in fly-tipping hot spots.

She said: “If I had a leaky roof, damaging my carpet, I wouldn’t just pay for it to be cleaned over and over again, I’d get the leak fixed.

“The council had almost 6,000 cases of fly-tipping between 2015 and 2015.

“I cannot believe the council thinks that the most efficient way of dealing with the problem is to just keep cleaning it up each time someone reports it - it’s a huge waste of taxpayers’ money.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense for the council to stop it happening in the first place by, for example, installing CCTV in fly-tipping hot spots?”

Latest available figures show there were a total of 5,873 cases of fly-tipping across all the authority wards between April 2014 and March 2015 - about 18 cases a day.

Cllr Joan McTigue and rubbish fly tipped at Gleneagles Road, Beechwood in May

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The area with the biggest problem was central Middlesbrough with 1,782 individual cases over the 12 months, Trimdon ward had the least cases with just 11.

Middlesbrough Council’s executive member for environment Cllr Tracy Harvey insisted that most residents and councillors are happy with the current service.

She said: “Fly-tipping is a scourge that is rightly hated by residents and thankfully, we have a brilliant and committed team in Middlesbrough’s Streetscene operation which will clear rubbish within 24 hours of it being reported.

“We will always respond to reports of it happening to first clean up the affected land, and then investigate and where possible prosecute.

“We are also happy to discuss where additional measures can be used effectively and proportionately.

“The figures show clearly that fly-tipping is a problem which sadly happens in all areas of the town.”